Hi,

What would the prceedure be for removing and reinstalling a drive belt tensioner, do you think a novice can do it like me. The mechanic says the belt is ok but the tensioner needs replacing and something about it is off center a bit??

Thx

 

Fairy simple. Expect some cut knuckles though. You should just be able to remove the center bolt and pull it off.

 

Does it have a bearing that is making the whining noise, guess so eh? I think it is only a noisy belt. I think I will try some belt conditioner first, then the hard part!

 

Hi,

Can anyone explain the proceedure to remove and replace the belt tensioner as it whining like a B**ch.

Thx
Randy

 

randy, there is a 3/8" square hole in the tensioner, use a3/8" breaker and relieve the tension on the belt, remove the belt from the tensioner and then remove the center bolt holding it on should be a 15mm head on it, then installation is the reverse.

the only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.

 

if it is out of alignment the bearing is going bad on it. that will frequently cause mis alignment of the tensioner.

the lights can be different model to model so with out looking at that particular model veh I can understand not knowing where the lights are for the vehicle, however i would keep a close eye on the mechanic and ask us if any thing sounds suspicious
stan
randy you have your pm turned off so I am posting my reply here

 

The squeeeling noise is gone, before I bought the car it had sat for 5 months and it had a new belt-I sprayed some belt dressing on it and about 3 days later after constantly driving it-- the noise is nearly gone--is this good news or bad? It runs great-- touching wood--

 

It'll come back............

 

belt dressing just makes a belt sticky temporarily cures the squeaking but when the dressing wears off the noise will come back, time for a new belt. if the vehicle is very old also time for a new tensioner. the spring looses tension over time and lets the belt slip easier.

I was married by a judge, should have asked for a jury "Groucho Marx"

 

Thanks people--I will change them when the temp. get above freezing.

 

I've been having the same problem with the tensioner. My car started to overheat, and I noticed that when I turned on the air conditioner the temperature would go down. My coolant light would come on at random, so I thought it was just my thermostat. It was, partly. My thermostat was stuck shut, so that solved my coolant issue. But my car would whine like my water pump was bad, but not all the time. Coupled with the overheating issue I thought it was bad... When I went to loosen the serpentine belt to take it off to get to the pump, the whole thing started moving excessively. I thought that the belt was just loose and that I could manually tighten it. Looked in my Haynes manual and found out that I couldn't it was a spring loaded pulley assembly but I couldn't find in the manual how to change it... So with all that said, thank you! This really helped me figure out how to replace it to keep anything else from going bad. And it gave me the confidence to do it myself. (I almost paid someone $80 to do it for me because I couldn't find anything on the subject)

 

I love this sight. It helped me out many times. Remember your water pump is hooked up to your timing chain not the serpentine belt(I made the same assumption). Replace it when it starts to leak out the hole in the bottom. HotiOKC and speedwrench are great and the Haynes manual sucks compared them them!